Unfortunately, it's quite common in anime (or just tv/books/movies in general) to introduce a character, get you to like them, then just when they start getting some decent character development - BOOM - dead. There are also characters that show up and look like they'd be really interesting, only to find out they're just plot fodder.
What are some characters you felt got offed too quickly? How did you feel? Disappointed? Happy? Just shocked? Please share your thoughts below.

[note from mod -- please name the show but put character names in a spoiler tag. Even if they got killed off too soon, knowing ahead of time could lead to a less satisfying viewing experience for someone planning to watch who hasn't yet seen the show.

If you would rather not know ahead of time that any deaths take place in a show, it would be best for you to shut your eyes, turn around, walk away and not return to this thread --lorreen]

Yamcha really needed to not die so early and easily in Dragonball Z since it severely restricted the role he could play, leaving me to wonder what he was even doing there. But what can you do? At least we got a great meme out of it.

Kamina (Gurren Lagann) was too cool to die so early on in the series.

L (Death Note) died off, and then we had replacement L's Mello and Near who just weren't as exciting. I'd have rather had L's investigation stretched out, have him discover clues about Light's identity as Kira more slowly, and keep L the hero antagonist the whole time.

for me, the elimination of people only works in "reality" competition shows where contestants get removed regularly as a part of the competition.

in fiction, i think it's cheap plot device. there's no real point in investing time in watching those types of anime or television shows because most people will end up dead anyhow. these shows establish a character, create a sob backstory, go through emotional drama with said character, build a fan/hate following around the character, and kill it off for shock value. after it happens enough times, some people may get wise and just stop caring all together...or worse yet, make posts like this that silently convince people to stop watching that kind of crap.

routinely killing off characters is a pathetically cheap and lazy plot device.